State and explain the law of segregation of characters.

Explanation

Mendel's second law of inheritance (law of segrega- tion) :
(1) Mendel's law of segregation is second law of inheritance. It states that when a pair of contrasting characters occur together in a hybrid, they remain together without mixing with each other and segregate during the formation of gametes.
(2) Thus, for example, when Mendel crossed a homozygous tall plant with a homozygous dwarf plant, the offspring resulted from this cross was found to be a hybrid tall.
( 3) The hybrid tall thus produced had two genes, viz., T (tallness) and t (dwarfness). When this hybrid tall formed the gametes, the two genes, viz., T and t were segregated as shown under :

( 4) Thus, each gamete receives only one allele for each character and not both. Owing to the segregation, the gametes that are formied are pure for the characters which they carry. Hence, this law is also called the law of purity of gametes.